Disney Cruise 2015 ~ Sea Day Number 1, Part 1

(Sat, Feb 21, 2015)

Each family has their own reason to choose a specific cruise.  In our case when we looked at our choices for this cruise we considered price and destination mostly.  We love the sea days where we do not dock and all the opportunities that these days offer.   This cruise offered 2 sea days which was great for us!

Saturday was our first full day and even though it had been cooler when we left Miami the evening before, we woke to a bright, sunny, warm morning and we quickly took advantage of being outside!!

Hannah was with us for only a short amount of time before she was asking to go to the Oceaneer’s Club so I dropped her off there.  I grabbed my book  and the wave phone so that the club could reach me if necessary, and went back up to hang out on the deck with Nana and Papa.  You can see it was a big challenge for Papa to flip into vacation mode and relax.

After a morning in the sun we headed back to our staterooms to prepare to go to Palo for a special lunch.  Palo is an adults only dining location so Hannah and Ava were happy playing at the Oceaneer’s Club and Lab and they fed them lunch too.  Bonus!!

Unfortunately my mom was a little under the weather so she wasn’t able to join us for lunch.  Missed you Mom! 

Our server was Sasha and he was amazing!!  So knowledgeable and an expert at what he did!  He started our lunch by offering to take pictures for us.  Palo is located on the 10th deck so the view is breathtaking!  Our group was: Liz (a friend from home who was on the same cruise with her daughter Ava) myself, Sharon, Larry and Dad.

The offerings at Palo are exceptional!  These are the appetizers that I narrowed it down to.  LOL! 

I had a delicious chicken parmesan on risotto but it was so delicious that it was gone before I remembered to take a picture of it!  My dessert choices…plus 2 helpings of strawberry soup not pictured here.

Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at Palo and will book again on a future cruise.

After lunch dad went to check in on mom while Sharon, Larry and I took a few minutes to take a few pictures. 

I went to pick Hannah up at the club and she’d had a great time!  

We decided to take in a showing of ‘McFarland, USA’ that was playing in the Walt Disney Theatre.  Hannah was happy to draw and colour for a bit and then dozed off for the final hour of the movie.  If you have the opportunity to see this movie, GO!  It was AMAZING!!!

After the movie Hannah was rested and raring to go so she and I quickly changed into bathing suits and hit the pool.  We were in rougher waters at this point and the water in the pool was sloshing from side to side.  That didn’t bother Hannah one little bit as she and her new little friend Miranda enjoyed some swimming time together.  In the end, we met Miranda and her family at the pool each day as the girls became fast friends and I got along with her parents too!

It was also a treat to swim when the pool was so empty as most of the cruise it looked like‘kid soup’…

but that never bothered us a bit either!

Up next….’Argh!  Pirates in the Caribbean!’

Disney Cruise 2015 ~ Home Away from Home

On this cruise Hannah and I were once again in an inside stateroom.  This time I chose what is called a ‘sideways’ stateroom and compared to last time it felt HUGE!  (LOL – anyone who has cruised knows that staterooms are far from ‘huge’.)  But, compared to last time it really had a lot more room to move around!

Rather than walk in at the end of the room and face the bed, this door was in the centre of the cabin.  The bed was to the left,

couch straight across (they also added a table in front of the couch which Hannah used often to colour at)

and the closets and restroom to the right.  The restroom was still teeny tiny but truly all we needed.

There was also a lot of storage in the form of dresser drawers, an upright steamer trunk, lots of hangers in the closet and shelves in the closet too. 

It ends up we were the final people to stay in our stateroom before it was refurbished.   The Wonder is 12 years old and will be dry docked for a major refurbishment after the new portion of the Panama Canal is open but until then they are doing small things to update the ship as they can.  After our cruise our stateroom received a new, higher bedframe that allowed luggage to be stored under it.  A queen mattress (ours was 2 singles pushed together that could have been separated), new carpeting and more. 

We loved our stateroom and it met all of our needs and we would book it again in a heartbeat except….

Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa each had veranda rooms and well…we fell in love! 

We rebooked another cruise while onboard and are planning to go back on the Fantasy in early 2017.  I’m already tucking pennies away in hopes of securing a veranda room for us!  We are fresh air kinda girls and I can only imagine how amazing it would be to look out and see the ocean around us and also hear the waves below as we sleep.  Yes, we have a goal!!

Disney Cruise 2015 ~ All Aboard!!!

(Friday, February 20, 2015)  We were SO excited for our cruise to begin that we booked the earliest shuttle we could and arrived in time to be the first in line and the first in the terminal!  Woot!!

Glimpse of the Disney Wonder as we arrived at the Port of Miami.

It was great arriving early as we were able to check in, register Hannah for the Oceaneer’s Club, meet Mickey and wait (im)patiently for the approval to board!

We filled our time with photo shoots.

 

Around noon the announcement was made that boarding could commence.  Woo hoo!!!  Goosebumps!!

We immediately made our way to Parrot Cay to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch.

We took a tour of the ship during the afternoon

then made our way to our lifeboat drill.

After the drill it was time for the All Aboard show and to wave to family and friends watching our ship leave port via the port webcam…far, far away.  The Port of Miami webcams don’t get very close but we still had fun waving.   Papa got his Mickey groove on!

After the show it was time to change and head to our first dinner. Disney cruising offers something unique to cruising in the form of rotational dining.  We always sat at the same table number and had the same great servers but we rotated between 3 different restaurants throughout the cruise.  This night and our final night we were at ' target=_blank>Animator’s Palate.   It was neat as the restaurant (and server Beata’s clothing) starting the evening in black and white

and then everything transformed as the evening progressed.

Dinner was followed by a welcome show in the Walt Disney Theater and then a first glimpse at the shops onboard where we bumped into our friends Liz and Ava who were also sailing on the same cruise.  Such cute little sailors!

Good night!  It was time to turn in and be gently rocked to sleep by the sway of the ship.  I could get used to this!!  Yo ho, yo ho a sailor’s life for me!!

Disney Cruise 2015–And We’re Off!!

After a year of planning and excitement the time for our family cruise was finally here!!  There were 7 in our travel group:  Grandma, Grandpa, my niece Rebecca, Nana, Papa, Hannah and I.   Sharon (Nana) and I had booked this trip while we were onboard the Fantasy last February and we’d shared a wonderful year of anticipation together.

Since we live in an area where weather is unpredictable in the winter we left home 2 days before our sailing date.  We drove to Buffalo on Wed, Feb 18th and then flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Thurs, Feb 19th.  Hannah and Papa with our luggage.  Well…luggage for 1/2 our group!  LOL!!

Breakfast at the airport before our early morning flight.

In the end, the unpredictable weather was in Ft. Lauderdale!  The final bit of our flight was filled with turbulence as we landed during extremely windy weather and it was c-c-c-chilly!  We had a bit of a wait for our hotel shuttle and there was warmth in numbers.

Our original plan had been to take a water taxi ride to see the Ft. Lauderdale shore but between the wind and cold we nixed that in about 2.5 seconds!  There really wasn’t much near our hotel so it was a pretty quiet afternoon.  We went for a walk to find lunch and came across this barbershop that made us laugh!  I noticed a guy standing on the sidewalk drinking a beer (which isn’t something we normally see at home) but then realized why.  Larry posed for a pic in front of the shop window.  

My thought is that the barber didn’t have a lot of faith in their haircuts so wanted to offer an incentive. 

After a delicious dinner at a nearby German restaurant we settled in early, excited for all that Friday would entail!  We were up early and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before packing up and heading to the Port of Miami.

Up next…All Aboard!!!

How Can It Be? Hannah is 6!!! Happy, Happy Birthday Hannah XiaoFen!!!

Before my eyes were even open Friday morning I heard the sweetest voice singing out, ‘It’s…..my…..birthday!!!’  Oh how excited she was and rightly so!  6 years old and so much to celebrate!!

Following a tradition started a few years back, balloons were flying to start her day of celebrations!

I was thankful to have the day off work so I was with Hannah at school when they announced her birthday during the morning announcements.  I teared up as I saw her joy!

Hannah took Rice Krispie squares and juice boxes to share with her school friends.  Thankfully this was the final day of my holidays so while she was there I had the time to run around a do some final birthday party prep.

After picking her up at daycare we went to my parents place for a family birthday celebration for my sweet 6yo!  I decided to let Hannah have full choice of the theme and menu.  Not surprising she chose a ‘Frozen’ theme.  Her menu was a fun glimpse into her favourite foods:

• Caesar Salad
• Cheezies
• Doritoes
• Black Olives
• Green Olives
• Fried Chicken
• Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
• White cake with a ‘Frozen’ theme and,
• Vanilla Ice Cream

I think she made great choices!

It was such fun to celebrate with some of her cousins and her grandparents too! 

Makenna

Kallen

Rebecca (with a couple of her great friends)

She received many wonderful gifts but it’s safe to say that this one that she and Makenna received together was the hit of the party!!  I think they’re excited!!

Happy, happy 6th Birthday sweet Hannah XiaoFen!  Mommy loves you so very much!!!

All pooped out after a day of birthday fun.